Big East Reaches Exit Agreement With Seven Basketball Schools

March 8 (Bloomberg) -- The Big East Conference reached an
exit agreement with St. John’s University and six other schools
whose top sports program is men’s basketball, clearing the way
for them to start a new league and take the conference name next
season.

The deal with St. John’s, DePaul University, Georgetown
University, Marquette University, Providence College, Seton Hall
University and Villanova University will allow the so-called
Catholic 7 to retain the Big East name and continue to play
their league championship tournament at Madison Square Garden in
New York.

The schools’ exit from the current Big East takes effect on
June 30 and they’ll begin their new conference on July 1. The 10
schools that remain in the Big East as it’s currently
constituted have to come up with a new league name by July 1.
Commissioner Mike Aresco said in a statement that no new
conference title had been chosen “and there are no favorites.”

The leading candidate is the America 12 Conference, ESPN
reported, citing unidentified people.

The breakaway schools must still appoint a commissioner and
negotiate a television contract. News Corp.’s Fox, which plans
to start Fox Sports 1 in August, has offered more than $500
million for a 12-year deal, ESPN said on March 1, citing
unidentified people.

The current Big East recently renewed its TV deal with Walt
Disney Co.’s ESPN after considering an offer from Comcast
Corp.’s NBC Sports Network.

Football Schools

The Associated Press reported two days ago that the Big
East’s football schools will get $100 million under the
agreement, with most of that going to the University of
Connecticut, the University of South Florida and the University
of Cincinnati.

The league collected about $110 million in recent years
through exit and entry fees from schools leaving and joining the
conference in what has become a nationwide realignment of
college sports, and money from member appearances in the
National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s basketball
tournament.

The seven outgoing schools will get about $10 million from
that pool along with the right to the Big East name and the
Madison Square Garden postseason tournament, AP said.

DePaul, from Chicago; Georgetown, from Washington;
Marquette, from Milwaukee; Providence, from Providence, Rhode
Island; Seton Hall, from South Orange, New Jersey; St. John’s,
from Jamaica in the New York City borough of Queens; and
Villanova, from Villanova, Pennsylvania, probably will add other
schools.

Additional Members

Butler University from Indianapolis, Xavier University from
Cincinnati and Creighton University from Omaha, Nebraska,
probably will join to create a 10-team basketball league for the
2013-14 season, ESPN said, citing unidentified people familiar
with the situation. The University of Dayton in Ohio and Saint
Louis University in Missouri may expand the league to 12 teams
for the 2014-15 season, ESPN said.

Staying with Connecticut, Cincinnati and South Florida are
East Carolina University, the University of Houston, the
University of Memphis, Southern Methodist University, Temple
University, Tulane University and the University of Central
Florida. Navy is set to join the league in 2015, with the
University of Tulsa a candidate to become the conference’s 12th
member during the 2014 or 2015 season, ESPN reported.